


how to teach a boy the basic limits of a freefall

by WatanabeMaya



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Everyone ships them, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Non-Linear Narrative, Oblivious, Pining, Timeskip, bokuaka canon!!!, eventually they will also ship themselves, everyone knows it except for them, haahahhha, konoha is the best supportive senpai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25858774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WatanabeMaya/pseuds/WatanabeMaya
Summary: A six-part novella on the meaning of love, as told in the little moments.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Konoha Akinori/Shirofuku Yukie, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21





	how to teach a boy the basic limits of a freefall

**Author's Note:**

> TITLE INSPIRED BY MY DOG
> 
> disclaimer: i dont own hq

**Excerpt from the Fukurodani literary journal, volume no. 297, an entry by Akaashi Keiji:**

> _The things you read shape you to become who you are, manifesting themselves in the nuances of one’s personality. Your essence is the sum total of all who have touched you, and of all those whom you have touched._

" _You_ ," Konoha drawls accusatorily the moment Akaashi steps foot into the _izakaya_ , finger pointed to the former setter's face as he narrows his eyes in a squinted rage, "smell like _horseshit_."

"I highly doubt you are in the proper position to talk, Konoha-san," Akaashi remarks dryly and returns the greeting. He shrugs off his coat and squeezes himself into the corner of the dining table, exchanging pleasantries with old friends as they celebrate his upperclassman's engagement party with their team's former manager Shirofuku Yukie. "I apologize for being late, it took me a while to personally retrieve Udai-sensei's manuscript. Congratulations on your engagement, by the way"

"Waaah!" Hinata waves in his direction. His orange hair shines brightly under the fluorescent yellow of the restaurant's light bulbs. He looks like something akin to the sun. "Akaashi-san, you came over here from Miyagi?"

"Yes." He nods.

"That's a long trip," Kageyama comments from the other side of the table beside his boyfriend. "You must be exhausted."

"It's fine. It took me around three hours by train, but I was asleep for most of the time," Akaashi reassures them with a faint smile, appreciative of their concern.

"Three hours!" Hinata shrieks. "Tobio told me it only took him two! If I knew it would take that long, I wouldn't have forced him to come."

"It's two hours and fifty-three minutes from Sendai," Kageyama grumbles under his breath. "And I wanted to see you. You didn't force me, Sho."

"That's practically three!" Hinata cries out loud. "You lied to me, Bakayama! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Eager to avoid confronting an argument, Kageyama takes a swig of his seatmate's beer and chugs. Without missing a beat, he slams the beer can down and wipes the foam off the corner of his mouth then says, "I love you."

Hinata returns his confession with a frown. He shakes his head heavily with disappointment. "No."

"What do you want from me?" Kageyama growls red-faced in frustration. He drops his head onto the table and barely misses the plate of _yakitori_ by an inch away from his face. He lets out a soft hiccup.

"An apology," Hinata declares with a huff, crossing his arms firmly in front of his chest. "Tell me that you're sorry."

Akaashi watches Kageyama remain unmoving, the setter's left cheek flushed warm and squished against the wooden table. Slowly, he blinks.

"I'm sorry that I love you?"

"...Tobio, no."

"Yer man's drunk, Shouyo-kun," Miya Atsumu supplies not-so-helpfully without tact. He drapes a lazy arm around Bokuto who appears to be a placeholder for his absentee boyfriend Sakusa Kiyoomi. Akaashi vaguely remembers the masked wing spiker calling off his participation under a claim he felt he was coming down with something and didn't want to risk getting anyone else sick.

"Kageyama's such a lightweight huh," Bokuto remarks blithely through an enormous peal of laughter. In the midst of the jovial yet chaotic atmosphere, Washio wordlessly nudges the poor boy a glass of iced water.

Miya Atsumu reclaims his borrowed can of beer. "Such a goody two shoes," he says and promptly empties out the remainder of its contents. Beside him, Sarukui reaches for the chicken skewers. Bokuto excuses himself to head to the restroom.

All heads turn towards Akaashi.

"Alright. So what's the news between you and Bokuto?"

"Me...and Bokuto-san?" Akaashi tilts his head. "Why would we have news?"

He does not like this, Konoha's face tells him, expression distraught as though he had – by Akaashi's humble choice of conduct – been clearly affronted.

"But! Akaashi-san!" Hinata screeches. "Why wouldn't you have news?!" Komi nods fervently at this reaction in agreement.

"Yeah, I mean," the libero comments, "you've only been dancing around each other for the past six years."

Have they? Akaashi wonders if that's what his teammates think his relationship with their former captain all means. Bokuto had been a constant presence in his life for the first two of those six years, if he were to be precise about things, but then graduation had happened and with it, an exchange of goodbyes and hollow promises to keep in touch. Save for the occasional happy birthday LINE messages and Akaashi keeping himself up-to-date with the V. League schedule to cheer for their ace during tournaments, it had only become inevitable for the two of them to just simply drift apart.

What had they done to take them this far?

" _Enough_ ," Konoha snarls as he sticks up his half-emptied bottle of _chu-hai._ "I'm tired of dealing with this...this six year mutual pining bullshit. Bokuto! How's our ordinary ace doing? Come h're," he slurs, speech muddled by the haze of celebration. "Someone misses you!"

"You missed me, 'Nori?" Bokuto asks in a volume much louder than what could be appropriate or normal for their distance, but Konoha's figure slumps against the table too drunk from the alcohol to care. Shirofuku scuttles over to pick up her future husband and rests his head on her shoulder. Konoha nuzzles his face against her collarbone contentedly with a sigh.

"Not me," he says, briefly shooting Akaashi a look – _The Look,_ the setter recognizes remorsefully – olive eyes boring into his soul, all piercing and sharp. "Him."

"Akaashi?" Bokuto wonders aloud. Akaashi looks up from his plate of tempura on the table and lets their eyes meet. He busies himself with his fingers. It only takes a breath of courage, he reminds himself, to reach for the stars and make the world his.

"Yes," Akaashi says, as he turns towards the ace and smiles. "It's been a while, Bokuto-san."

"So it has," Bokuto agrees. Akaashi lifts his hands from his lap and instead rests them carefully onto the table, ignoring the sudden, flaring want to traverse the distance between the cushions to let their fingers meet.

**Author's Note:**

> decided to drop u all a little teaser/gift of sorts before i vanish into the void that is the academic abyss. come christmas time i shall resurface like a hungry squirrel in the winter to provide u all with more updates and other fics i've got planned. this is another attempt at a multichap because i have not yet learned my lesson from that apocafic last time. this isn't anything nearly half as ambitious as that, but i just hoped to share a new idea/style that i wanted to explore more.
> 
> see you guys in december! (or earlier if i ever manage to squeeze in the time but i make no promises there) good luck with work-from-home/online classes everyone! stay safe and healthy xx
> 
> hype with me about hq on [twitter](https://twitter.com/onigiri_maya)


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